Control of the renal microcirculation: cellular and integrative perspectives

Recent studies targeting ionic signalling events have revealed that considerable segmental heterogeneity exists between pre- and post-glomerular vascular smooth muscle cells, and that even preglomerular vascular smooth muscle cells are not a homogeneous population. Preglomerular branch points enriched with calcium channels may be critical for initiating contractile responses, with subsequent propagation along the vascular wall, and may also facilitate nephron-nephron coupling events. These processes ultimately promote coordinated network behaviour and can underlie development of synergistic vasoactive responses, such as those necessary to provide efficient autoregulation of blood flow and glomerular filtration rate.